Mozambique: Country’s public debt to peak at 130.7% in 2022 – IMF report

6:42 CAT | 10 Oct 2018

he International Monetary Fund sees public debt in Mozambique rising sharply over the next five years, from 112.9% of gross domestic product this year to 130.7% in 2022, before falling to 122.1% in 2023.

According to the IMF’s Fiscal Monitor, released on Wednesday in Bali, Indonesia, where the annual meetings of the Fund and the World Bank take place, Mozambique’s public debt is set to rise to 118.7% of GDP next year and continuously thereafter, before peaking at 130.7% in 2022.

The average value of public debt of countries in sub-Saharan Africa will be 41.7% this year, less than one third of the IMF’s projection for Mozambique’s peak indebtedness.

Angola, meanwhile, is expected to see its public debt swell to 80.5% of GDP this year, roughly double the average of sub-Saharan Africa, then shrinking to 71.8% next year.

The IMF has revised its forecasts for global economic growth in view of interest rates increases and rising trade tensions.

The organisation on Monday said that growth will be 3.7% this year, the same as in 2017 but below the 3.9% it had been predicting in July.